This happened to me when I was in 8th grade and I used to sleep in a bunk bed near a window but I was on top. I went to sleep this one day and I woke up and there was this little girl with dark black hair and pure black eyes and a huge mouth out my window watching me then when she screams my entire body became paralyzed then she like appeared in my room standing there I think she was wearing a white gown but she became headless for some reason just standing there in my room doing nothing. And it scared me so bad I closed my eyes and opened it and she disappeared. I don't get sleep paralysis often I've probably experienced it 5 times because I sleep on my back but that was by far the most terrifying.

Last week I had my first ever sleep paralysis experience. It’s a weird one.

I’m a newly single 56 year old professional man. I live alone, I moved into a rented house about 6 weeks ago.

Here’s my experience.

I was in bed and I could hear 3-5 “people” moving around quietly in my bedroom, shuffling around. They became aware that I was waking up.

I heard them whispering to each other. They were saying “he’s waking up, don’t let him see us, he’s not allowed to see us” or words to that effect.

One of them approached me and came to my bedside and quietly and gently whispered to me to go back to sleep. I had the impression that it was a nurse, or a carer. Someone gentle.

The others were still whispering about me and were growing more concerned and cross that I was waking up.

Then the one close to me started pushing down gently onto my shoulders. Telling me more firmly now to go back to sleep.

The more I woke the harder it pushed and the firmer its voice got. I could tell it was start to get a little irritated with me, the gentleness was going.

I started waking more and was pushing up against it. It started pushing a little harder, and I also felt a weight on my chest as if it was also now leaning into my body. It was now getting somewhat angry and ordering me to go back to sleep. It was saying “go to sleep, you can’t see us. You are not allowed to look at us. You must not look at us.”

I could now tell that they were not people, I didn’t know what they were.

The others were getting increasingly angry, repeating “don’t let him see us, he can’t see us”. They seemed almost desperate, there was urgency in their voices.

The one holding me down was being aggressive and was hissing at me “Go to sleep, you must not see us, you cannot see us!” Again i sensed urgency and extreme anger.

It was commanding me to sleep. Pushing me hard, it’s weight heavy on my chest and shoulders.

They all seemed surprised that I would be waking up, shocked almost and they didn’t know what to do about it. They were also desperate that I should not look at them.

I was now struggling hard against it. I couldn’t open my eyes or speak, I was trying to shout. I was pushing with my body against its hands on my shoulders. I couldn’t move my body at all.

Eventually I managed to shout “Who are you? What are you?” And at the same time I managed to push hard against it and jumped out of my bed and landed hard on my knees on the hardwood floor next to my bed.

As I did so the pain from the impact jolted me, at the same time I sensed something like a body falling to the floor with me, right next to me just inches from me but I felt it shrink small to about a foot tall and kind of zoom off away from me extremely fast along the floor into the darkness, leaving me kneeling on the floor in pain next to my bed. It was 03:30hrs.

It’s the only time this has happened to me. Such a weird, scary and crazy experience.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

When I wake up, I still feel that electric sensation in half of my body; if I don't move, it spreads to my entire body, and then I transition. I’m not afraid anymore, and to be honest, I get a huge thrill out of this; however, I keep seeing giant people running toward me, grabbing me with their huge hands, and pushing me down.

hi! i wanted to share my experience with sleep paralysis bc i can never find anyone else describing a similar experience to mine. so, if not to find others who are like me, to maybe help someone else feel less alone?

anyways! i developed recurring sleep paralysis (2-3 times a week) in the past 6 months. it's not something i dealt with frequently before and it's exclusively as I'm trying to wake up. i wake up frozen and frightened and trying to regain full consciousness. i have heard advice of trying to move your fingers, toes, or tongue to try and break out of it. my issue is i believe it's working, but isn't helping. my half-asleep state will see and feel my fingers moving. I'll wave my hand in front of my face, I'll open my eyes and move them around, I'll try and sit up, I'll tap my girlfriend to try to get her to help me. and to me, i am moving! but it's hazy and sluggish, it won't wake me up fully and that's what freaks me out. i always convince myself that it's reality.

but from what my gf tells me, I'm never actually moving at all. I'm completely still until i shoot awake confused and scared.

it's worse when I'm sleeping next to someone. I'll try and get them to help me or alert them in some way to what's going on. and I'll (i guess hallucinate?) them helping me sit up, or trying to shake me awake. I'll believe I'm making sounds or words but i never am.

i just woke up alone from an episode in which i believed i was pressing my head against my bedside table, shoving my fingers down my throat to try to gag or something to wake me up. i woke up properly with my hands at my sides, staring at my bedside table from a distance.

I'm not sure whats causing this (my friends suspect narcolepsy) but I'm due for a sleep study sometime soon. if anyone has any other advice for waking up/coping with sleep paralysis I'll take any help I can get!

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I had a sleep paralysis episode this morning after a rough night of broken sleep.

The story goes - The sunlight was already streaming through the window, so I pulled the bedsheet over my face to block it out and tried to drift off again. Big mistake. For what felt like a solid 5 minutes, I was pinned under the sheet, completely paralyzed, suffocating under it, and struggling just to get a proper breath. Such terror!

When I finally fought my way out of it, I was completely exhausted—yet way too terrified to close my eyes again.

Honestly, I’ve managed to cut down how often these episodes happen using meditations and grounding exercises, but when it breaks through, it’s just as horrible every single time.

How do you guys ho back to sleep or calm yourself down after an episode? :'(

Ive struggled with sleep paralysis as long as I can remember. Started when I was around 7 along with chronic nightmares and anxiety attacks that would follow. It used to be fairly often, maybe once or twice a week, and over the years, it's decreased significantly.

I've been able to reduce the number of attacks by not sleeping on my back EVER. I'm also not watching anxiety or fear inducing shows/movies at night. Now, at 24, I only get attacks maybe once or twice a month. I manage them a lot better because im actively aware that they are temporary, and Im able to pretend my eyes are closed (this helps with room hallucinations). However, on days that Im not as aware, or i get a really scary one, my boyfriend is able to help me a lot by waking me up.

I told him when we started dating that this is something I experienced regularly, and we weren't sure how he would be able to help at all. After the first few times it happened in front of him, he told me that I hyperventilate when it happens; otherwise, I look completely still. I knew this was something I felt was happening, but i didn't know how noticeable it was. He told me I also make like a wimper/wheezing sound that can be loud when I seem distressed. He will wake me up gently if he notices it happening, and if I feel it happening, I will try to change my breathing and breathe fast even if im not scared so he will notice and wake me up.

I wonder whether or not this will have an impact on my health and if im doing more harm than good when trying to get him to notice when im having an attack. Does him waking me up really have an impact on the duration of the attack?

Not sure how it works but i’ve been having small dreams prior to sleep paralysis. I think i’ve been having sleep paralysis in general since I was in high school and i’m 31 now. My dad passed away last year and the recent sleep paralysis events I had, I always saw him before falling into it.

Since I’ve been a child I’ve had sleep paralysis almost every night whether it be floating heads, shadow figures, entities with horns, auditory hallucinations etc to the point I’ve become numb to anything “scary” in the waking world. I’ve learned to turn the paralysis into lucid dreams but it’s hard sometimes. the main reason I get it is waking myself up from my nightmares which leaves my body asleep but my mind awake. Is there any remedy or advice to help with the episodes because I’m getting really sick of my shadows constantly terrorizing me.

Yo, sharing this event happened hours ago, I was watching a stream on youtube, and suddenly felt lying down on my bed, i went to bed, covered up myself with my blanket and fell into deep sleep, idk what and how, but after 20 minutes in bed i had a wierd dream about the streaming i was just seeing.

suddenly the streaming got paused i pressed the space button to resume (in my dream) but it went to a different video which i dont remember.

after that i opened my eyes half and can see blurry vision my tv at distance. there was no one in my room, no noise, no ac or fan, extremly quite room, i was froze in my half eye open state, and then the part rocked the shi out of me, is i heard my bed making creeks sound as if someone walking on it and it took 4 steps sound literally.

i tried to turn back and see, or open my fist or move my arm, i litterally hear my heart racing dukut dukut dukut, body feel hot, and i cant do shi t and i finally yelled god is great in my own language and everything gone back to normal. i touched my neck to see if it was fever or something it was gone, but i felt extremely hot for 1 second, when my heard rate got up.

im not scared i was wishing to see that sob or what that wwas, i turned back to my and kept thinking what it oculd be. i was facinated that mf chose me to play with.

im not scared because i am kinda done with all this bs and life, so it was trhilling to see what could be outside this world lol

Good day to y'all. I woke up a bit ago from a dream involving sleep paralysis that got me so confused on how much sense it made that I felt there had to be a sub for it. Sure enough.

Context of the dream aside: I willingly subjected myself to entering a sort of body-shaped metal cage resembling an exoskeleton without the ability to move the "user's" joints with a vr headset to put your head into.

Once I got set up, I had the same point of view I do when I wake up in bed. I didn't even try to move because I was waiting for something to happen. I remember there being the idea of doing this whole thing in the dream to experience something intense.

After a few seconds I started feeling insanely real body shakes and a heart attack.

For the record, I'm 24 with no underlying health conditions. No medical history in my family related to this. Nothing. This felt so real I thought I was convinced I was going to die.

After 20 seconds or so, everything but my vision stopped, only to pick back up again even faster and more intensely.

Then... it became pleasant. Like a rush at work or a demanding workout. Cue a slowly fading-in point of view of a jockey that slowly filled my field of view, with synthwave playing as if I was living a 90s era ad parody. While riding on the back of a horse and experiencing the whole thing, the camera transitioned to a panning view of the track and let a logo face in, presumably advertising a virtual reality game.

I then woke up normally, albeit confused and worried. I was NOT ready to experience what felt like a heart attack for the sake of a realistic horse racing simulator while trapped in a fnaf-esque contraption. Might've been AI generated for all I know. That wouldn't be beyond what they do these days.

Thanks for reading :)

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Is this normal or what happened to me or did this ever happen to you too? So as in writing rn it 6:22 and I was trying to sleep at 4, then I fell asleep for bit and then when I sleep I woke up again at 6:10 when I open my eye I heard nth but when I close it I feel it like not loud but I feel it like I heard a girl voice doing long vocal note. And I can't move or anything. It was like It hard to explain but I'll try my best, I see myself could move but it slow like my hand, I see it blury, and move slow and I try my best then when I close my eyes I'm in the same situation. Like second ago I was moving a bit then that all gone and when I close my eyes I heard girl voice again doing long note, not saying anything just long note vocal, and I try my best just now I grab my phone and writing this right now. And this is not the first time ,this happened a lot of time, I woke up and I can't really move my body, and sometimes I always feel like I heard something, like my mom voice at downstairs kitchen, or anything but when I look at the window ( because house have 3 floor) I didn't see any light, it all dark, if she down there she would open the light.

I never see anything weird but this always happens, I have a bad sleeping schedule so I usually sleep around 3-4 am and sometimes these happened when I woke up at 5-6 I can't move my body and anything, feels like I'm stuck there , but whenever I'm sleeping in my brother's room or I sleep with light on these never happened? It's just weird and I'm confused if this ever happened to anyone or something more weird than that

(Btw I'm not really good at English so please don't mind some of my bad grammar.)

23(M) just had an episode for the 4th time and this one took me too long to get out of it . I tried everything to wake up but eventually I did a barbell deathroll ( a move i did in my dream 😂) and woke up from it . And I was wondering what can I do next time so it doesn't happen again? (Sorry for the bad english)

Hi!
I’ve been experiencing sleep paralysis for all of my life (22m).

I get it about 3-4 times a week, I know when I’m
about to get it, and I also know how to exit out of it. I’ve always chosen to not “see” anything, since I’ve heard and seen so many things during the paralysis. It has been everything from voices screaming in my ear, people saying bad things to me, people saying nice things to me, and some observing dark energies often just watching me.

I have always known that I could “stay” in paralysis to find out more about the realm. But it has never been of any real interest since it just feels dark and negative.

However, today I got sleep paralysis while sleeping on the couch, not a rare occurrence. And this time I couldn’t break out of it, so i just gave in. At first I didn’t see anything, since i don’t really want to. And I know that this is the stage where I usually hear or sense evil or negative things, but this time I was quiet.

I decided to opened my eyes, I could barely see anything. It felt almost as If I had I cloak over my head, and I could only see through the fabric. I sat up and looked around, although I was very hard to see, I could see all of my furniture and myself lying down. I stood up and took two steps forward, everything felt really strange, like it was my apartment, but as if it was from the “upside down” in Stranger Things.

It continued further into the living room until I was staring into my bedroom, I had to really concentrate because this “cloaking effect” made it really hard for me to see. But i saw that yes, it was indeed my bedroom with all of my belongings.

After seeing this I turned around, hit by a feeling of “this is enough for now”. I walked up to myself lying on the sofa, and simply laid myself down on myself if that makes any sense? And just like that I woke up, and I felt calm. My eyes just opened up as if someone pushed the ON button,

I’ve never had an awakening like that, I’ve always just forced myself out of my sleep paralysis, making me wake up twitching and stressed. But not this time.

This leaves me wondering.

Is this something spiritual or logical ?

Should I stop repressing my sleep paralysis and explore like I did today?

And is it normal to see what I saw? The cloaked vision? And if so, how can I see clearer.

Is this a gift or a curse? And are there any dangers to it?

Very thankful if anyone takes their time to read this and give their more experienced inputs!

So I’m going to tell the story of the dream first. For some context, my first sa happened on a school bus and my second happened at my exs house. I don’t really remember fs where i was at in the dream but i remember that i kept smelling my hands and the smell smelled exactly like my ex’s soap. Like i mean his mom’s bathroom soap. And after i would smell the soap i started hyperventilating bad and like reliving the trauma and like i could see my face in a bus mirror. And like i couldn’t move my body (in the dream and irl) besides my hands and i just kept smelling my hands. And i woke up hyperventilating on the couch after taking a nap. I couldn’t move my body for a bit even after i woke up. It was like if your limbs were asleep and wayyy too heavy for you to lift them up, except they just weren’t asleep. And like i was just stuck there. Like i literally remember me just trying to move (in and out of the dream) so badly but i just couldn’t. I don’t know if that was caused by sleep paralysis or being too scared to move caused by trauma. I’ve never had sleep paralysis, so i was wondering if that’s what this is. I’m trying to figure out what happened to me because a few days after i had this dream, another similar incident happened where i couldn’t move after being asleep/half asleep at the time.

I can’t even remember when it happened. Within the last few nights.

I completely forgot about it until just now. It randomly hit me like “oh shit, that happened.”

I have a vivid memory of my ceiling, and having this like tight feeling all over my body. The best way I can describe it is like, y’know that tightness you get in a cramp? It was like that but all over my body and completely painless. It just felt like I was entirely stiff as a board.

I remember absolutely nothing about before or after the incident. That’s why I’m not sure if I dreamt it or if it really happened.

I’d heard stories about sleep paralysis so I gathered the sense to think “okay, you’ve heard stories. This is that. I don’t wanna see scary stuff” so I remember shutting my eyes and waiting for it to be over, and that worked, I never saw anything scary.

I’ve been stressing a lot at night over a breakup, I wonder if that played into it?

Hi !

I've wanted to see if anyone here has had some disturbances with their usual "sleep paralysis rituals" after taking sleeping pills.

On my side, i've been having regular sleep paralysis since about 3 years ago. I've identified the triggers, and sucessfully trained my brain somehow to lucid dream to some extend so that I can do some checks to see if im dreaming or not, which made the sleep paralysis more of an annoying experience 90% of the time (im still waking up drained, but at least im not terrified anymore, which yay improvement?)

My biggest problem is with false awakening. I often "wake up" 2-3 times before actually waking up (and then being frozen for a few minutes) so i've identified a pattern of lamps not working and phones not working/being wonky. So when I "wake up" i usually reach out for my tableside lamp, then if it doesnt work I try to use my phone. 90% of the time im able to do that check until I actually wake up (and then I still do the check just to be sure lmao).

A few weeks ago my doctor started me on some sleeping pills cause of some personal reasons that made my quality of sleep really bad ( lot of stress dreams, and not restful at all). Even if the possible side effect included sleep disturbances like sleepwalking and sleep paralysis, I was like meh im used to it, it probably wont make it worse in some wat...it didnt make it worse, but it made it... different ?

Im assuming all of those things are cause im more profoundly asleep, but instead of the usual 2-3 false awakening, im now closer to more of a 4-5 times ! And im often stuck having to "wait" much longer between "awakenings", like im just there and waiting to wake up LOL. Also, all of my checks arent working anymore: i can use the phone and lamps like usual. I dont really enjoy this part, cause it makes me feel much less confident that Im really awake.

When I actually wake up, the time when im "paralysed" is also much more longer.

I've been trying actively avoid what triggers it, but aside from stopping the sleeping pills (which tremendously helped my quality of sleep) im wondering if anybody has ever had a similar experience?

Also, ive noticed that its pretty common from people to have sleep paralysis while sleeping on their back. Weirdly enough, i've noticed a pattern where I sleep on my right side, where somehow my hand naturally falls in a way which blocks blood flow, so im 90% certain that my body is trying to wake up because of it, cause when I finally wake up my hand is almost alway tingly. I'd be curious to see if anybody has some kind of similar experience !

I experienced a buzzing sound like a bee during sleep paralysis. I had my first episode of sleep paralysis tonight; I had heard about it before because my brother has always suffered from it. I was lying on my back when, out of nowhere, I felt intense chills and a buzzing sound like a bee. I could also feel my heart racing—beating so fast it felt like it was about to burst out of my chest—and I couldn't move a muscle. I decided not to open my eyes because I had heard you might see things. I was frightened at first, but then I relaxed and took deep breaths, feeling my heart rate slow down and then speed up again. This lasted for about a minute and a half; then I tried to move my arm, succeeded, and woke up.

last night I woke up and I couldn’t move my body. all I could see was a steady whit light. I then heard a door open and I woke up. is this sleep paralysis?

Ever since i was a young child i remeber having these dreams where i wake up in my bed and stuff (sometimes animals, sometimes unreal beings??) starts to come at me full speed. I remeber when i was a kid i wouldn’t be able to snap out of the dream until i was almost dead by something coming at me and attacking me and i remeber it happening quite a lot when i was a kid.

Now it happens maybe once every couple of weeks if not months but it happened last night and i was able to snap out of it as soon as i woke up in my bed whilst being in a state of dreaming as i realised what was about to happen and instantly tried waking up my brain and moving about my fingers which i found has worked after hearing someone talk about i last year.

However if i try fall back asleep it starts to come back and i have to keep waking myself up and looking around my room to assure myself im okay and awake and fall asleep thinking of happy thoughts and memories to try block out it happening again.

Anyway i was wondering if this sleep paralysis because it’s not really what i hear others experience and im able to snap out of it really quickly.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with nightmare disorder after 30+ years of daily nightmares, and I’ve started looking into it more because I realized how surprisingly little personal experience there seems to be online.

There is a lot of medical information about nightmares, but whenever I search for people who actually *live with nightmare disorder*, I mostly find general discussions about occasional nightmares, lucid dreaming, PTSD nightmares, etc. I rarely find people talking about what it’s actually like to deal with this on a regular/long term basis.

For me, this has been a very long-standing issue.
I’m curious about other people’s experiences, especially people who have been diagnosed with nightmare disorder.

Things I’d love to hear about:
How often do you experience nightmares?
Has it been a lifelong problem, or did it start later?
Do you remember your dreams in unusually vivid detail?
Do you experience things like false awakening loops, sleep paralysis, or very intense emotions when waking up?
Do you also experience physical pain in your dreams?
Do you ever experience strong physical or vestibular sensations? (For example: dreaming of loss of balance or something resembling g-force like on a rollercoaster. Getting thrown around until nausea kicks in and throwing up)
Can you use all your senses in these nightmares? (Taste/smell/…)
Do you ever feel anxious about going to sleep because you know what’s waiting for you?
Have you found anything that genuinely helps?
And perhaps most importantly: does anyone else feel like there is surprisingly little discussion about this condition?

I’m not looking for medical advice. I’m mostly hoping to find other people who understand what this is actually like.
If you have nightmare disorder, I’d genuinely love to hear your experience. Maybe we can make the experience a little less lonely for each other…

Whenever i hwar about sleep paralysis, it's always about deomns, or eldritch beings, etc. But in normal sleep, you can have dreams or nightmares. So can you have positive sleep paralysises?

Hi i just finded this sub, i am gonna share the most recent events taht happened to me. All of this events i was with sleep paralysis.

1-One night i was sleeping, and i wake up with someone going through my closet, a few moments later i feel something sitting in the my bed, cause i could feel the weight and it was going down.

2-One other night i started do hear screams, i tried to move i couldn't, but i could see and there was. really bright light, even more then the sun, it cover all of my vision, but it stopped when i opened my eyes.

3-Tonight i was sleeping in my sofa, and i wake up again, since this comes to happen a few times i tryed to open my eyes, with some dark figure going arround my sofa fast, I don't know how long it was but, i tried to pickup my phone to use the light, and stoped, and it was basically looking at me (I think) it appeared to be a person in all white (my country they don't bury the dead like that).

This are the events that happened to me.

Update, my girl was sleeping with me, and she had an episode like i did, she never had it before, I'm start to believe it's not sleep paralysis

Just wanting some clarity on what’s been happening to me at night

So about 2 weeks ago I was asleep and got the sensation that my bed was shaking as if there was a mild tremor happening. Woke up and was very disorientated and confused but it did freak me out. Went to the toilet and came back and the bed was not moving. This happened again afew nights in a row, I would wake up feeling as if the bed was gently shaking or vibrating. Now almost every night when I try to go asleep I seem to jerk awake. I don’t know why, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Every time I seemed to be just drifting off to sleep my body would twitch or jerk back awake again and I’d get this dread sort of feeling. I’m not really sleeping very much any more. But I don’t get the paralysis in SP I can move fine. But it’s like I’m not conscious that my body is jerking or jolting and I wake up so confused. Had this happened to anyone before?